SF supervisor wants action taken on parking scam

It's a scheme that's preposterously easy to pull off, but after you see how it works -- it won't ever work on you.

Police have arrested or made contact with Fofana Mbemba more than 70 times. Just Wednesday, he was caught on an ABC7 surveillance camera, as parking lot attendants grabbed him while he posed as one of them. Mbemba may be the most prolific parking attendant impostor in the city and he seems to be unstoppable.

"Hundreds of thousands of dollars are being stolen; customers and visitors to the city are having a terrible experience and the only thing that can be done is for the district attorney to prosecute the individual or individuals," Zeff said.

Mbemba once served two years in prison when his probation was revoked, but almost every time he's arrested, he spends only a few days in jail before he's back working the parking lots.

"Here I am, a former mayor, who can't get, who cannot get any kind of response from the district attorney in terms of dealing with this issue," Agnos said.

District attorney spokesperson Erica Derryck says the law limits what prosecutors can do in this case.

"We can only charge and prosecute somebody for the conduct that they've committed," Derryck said. "In this instance, the conduct is petty theft, which is a misdeamenor charge and only carries a limited sentence."

The district aottrney's office says it will work with the San Francisco Police Department's fraud unit to find a "creative" way to keep Mbemba off the streets.

"Just because this crime is considered to be a misdemeanor, repetitively it's beginning to have a cumulative effect," said Mirkarimi.

Mirkarimi said will introduce a resolution on Tuesday. He's calling for the District Attorney, Muni and the Port Authority to come up with a plan that will ultimately put an end to the parking attendant scam. One idea is to require parking lot owners to add gates that require a ticket to enter and exit the lot.

"We're on the cusp of being the host of the America's Cup, which is going to be all over San Francisco, especially in the Embarcadero, Port Authority area and we're going to have to be really prepared for that," said Mirkarimi.

What Mirkarimi is introducing on Tuesday will be a non-binding resolution. He hopes that it will eventually evolve into a city ordinance.